The chilling sound of minks screaming on an Irish fur farm this week.
The screams - heard alongside the voices of fur farm workers - were recorded at VASA, Ireland’s largest fur farm where tens of thousands of mink are caged and gassed to death at 6 months of age.
The fur farm at Vicarstown in County Laois contains rows and rows of cages where the mink are confined. Department of Agriculture documents show that over 80,000 young mink are kept at the farm “prior to pelting season” when they are killed and the fur is ripped from their bodies.
The screaming belies a recent Department of Agriculture report which farcically claimed that there are "very high standards of animal welfare" on Irish fur farms. Writing in the documents, a Department vet (whose name is blacked out) incredibly maintains that there was “no stress in the mink” and that they “seem contented” - despite the fact that these are solitary creatures forced to live in small cages in very close proximity to each other in an entirely unnatural setting.
In stark contrast, Veterinary Ireland has condemned fur farming as “cruelty” and called for it to be banned.
“Mink in [fur] farms do not have a life worth living in any way,” Veterinary Ireland representative Dr Mark Dalton stated on RTE Radio 1 earlier this month. Referring to the Five Freedoms for Animals (freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury and disease, freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from fear and distress), he said that, due to the nature of mink, only “freedom from hunger and thirst” could possibly be met on a fur farm.
He went on to address the issue of permanently caging mink and keeping them in close proximity to each other: “In the wild, these are solitary animals and they are semi-aquatic animals. Typically they have a river boundary that is all theirs, up to 7 km long. If they meet, they fight. The only time they meet and don’t fight is when they meet to mate and then they separate again. They don’t like each other and we are putting them in farms right beside each other in tiny metal cages...Mink are not social animals.”
“THIS IS CRUELTY,” he added.
We are renewing our call on the government to respect the wishes of the 80 per cent majority who want fur farming banned and immediately put an end to this shameful practice.
ACTION ALERT
Urge Taoiseach/Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, and Agriculture Minister Michael Creed to put in place a long overdue ban on fur farming.
Leo Varadkar TD
Department of the Taoiseach
Merrion Street, Dublin 2
Phone: +353 (0)1-6194000 OR +353 (0)1-6403133, +353 (0)1-6194598 (Constituency Office)
Email: leo.varadkar@oir.ie, leoconstituency@taoiseach.gov.ie, finegael@finegael.ie
CC: michael.creed@oir.ie (Agriculture Minister Michael Creed)
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leovaradkar
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeoVaradkar
Michael Creed TD
Minister for Agriculture
Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Email: michael.creed@oir.ie
Tel: 01-607 2000 or LoCall 1890-200510.
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelcreedtd
Tweet to: @creedcnw
Send an email to ALL Fine Gael TDs
maria.bailey@oireachtas.ie; sean.barrett@oireachtas.ie; pat.breen@oireachtas.ie; colm.brophy@oireachtas.ie; richard.bruton@oireachtas.ie; peter.burke@oireachtas.ie; catherine.byrne@oireachtas.ie; Ciaran.Cannon@oireachtas.ie; joe.carey@oireachtas.ie; corcorankennedy@eircom.net; Simon.Coveney@oireachtas.ie; michael.creed@oireachtas.ie; michael.darcy@oireachtas.ie; Jim.Daly@oireachtas.ie; john.deasy@oireachtas.ie; Pat.Deering@oireachtas.ie; Regina.Doherty@oireachtas.ie; Paschal.Donohoe@oireachtas.ie; andrew.doyle@oireachtas.ie; bernard.durkan@oireachtas.ie; damien.english@oireachtas.ie; Alan.Farrell@oireachtas.ie; frances.fitzgerald@oir.ie; peterm.fitzpatrick@oireachtas.ie; charles.flanagan@oireachtas.ie; Brendan.Griffin@oireachtas.ie; Simon.Harris@oireachtas.ie; Martin.Heydon@oireachtas.ie; Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie; paul.kehoe@oireachtas.ie; enda.kenny@oireachtas.ie; Sean.Kyne@oireachtas.ie; josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie; helen.mcentee@oireachtas.ie; joe.mchugh@oireachtas.ie; Tony.McLoughlin@oireachtas.ie; Mary.MitchellOConnor@oireachtas.ie; Dara.Murphy@oireachtas.ie; Eoghan.Murphy@oireachtas.ie; hildegarde.naughton@oireachtas.ie; tom.neville@limerick.ie; michael.noonan@oireachtas.ie; kate.oconnell@oireachtas.ie; Patrick.O'Donovan@oireachtas.ie; fergus.odowd@oireachtas.ie; JohnPaul.Phelan@oireachtas.ie; michael.ring@oireachtas.ie; noel@noelrock.ie; david.stanton@oir.ie; leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie
Urge Fianna Fáil leader, Micheal Martin and Fianna Fail TDs to back a ban on fur farming.
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie, info@fiannafail.ie
Tel: 021-432 0088 (Constituency Office) OR 01–618 3000 (Leinster House)
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichealMartinTD
Send an email to ALL Fianna Fáil TDs
billykelleher@eircom.net; sean.haughey@oireachtas.ie; Bobby.Aylward@oireachtas.ie; brendan.smith@oireachtas.ie; johncurranff@gmail.com; Charlie.McConalogue@oireachtas.ie; michael.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie; sean.ofearghail@oireachtas.ie; john.brassil@oireachtas.ie; darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; eamon.ocuiv@oireachtas.ie; jackie.cahill@oireachtas.ie; john.mcguinness@oireachtas.ie; mattie.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie; micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; michael.moynihan.td@oireachtas.ie; niall.collins@oireachtas.ie; coper@eircom.net; Robert.Troy@oireachtas.ie; thomas.byrne@oireachtas.ie; timmy.dooley@oireachtas.ie; barry.cowen@oireachtas.ie; fiona@fiona.ie; declan.breathnach@oireachtas.ie; mary.butler@oireachtas.ie; kevin.okeeffe@oireachtas.ie; dara.calleary@oireachtas.ie; escanlonmcc@eircom.net; sean.fleming@oireachtas.ie; niamh.smyth@oireachtas.ie; james@jameslawless.ie; shane.cassells@oireachtas.ie; willie.odea@oireachtas.ie; margaret.murphyomahony@oireachtas.ie; anne.rabbitte@oireachtas.ie; eugene.murphy@oireachtas.ie; jack.chambers@outlook.com; james.browne@oireachtas.ie; john.lahart@oireachtas.ie; lisa.chambers@oireachtas.ie; marc.macsharry@oireachtas.ie; jim.ocallaghan@oireachtas.ie; pat.casey@oireachtas.ie; aindrias.moynihan@oireachtas.ie; frankorourke1@gmail.com
Please contact all your local TDs and urge them to support Solidarity's Fur Farm Prohibition bill 2018. Contact details for TDs can be found at https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/32
VIDEOS
Victims of Ireland's cruel far farming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=artr7qwCLLk&index=2&list=PL43C1F00F38986C68
NARA footage showing caged mink in a fur farm in Donegal
https://www.facebook.com/NARAcampaignsIRELAND/videos/1694193503937318/
Mink pulled from cages and thrown into gassing box
https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/videos/2241073319549210/